You know what they say – something borrowed, something blue. Well this is blue and it’s borrowed from Jeezny on Flickr.

A great picture of the classic Korg Kaossilator, and man those colours pop!
]]> http://www.korg-kaossilator.com/kaoss/2010/03/kaossilator-yellow-on-blue/feed/ 0 http://www.korg-kaossilator.com/kaoss/2010/01/kaossilator-pro/ http://www.korg-kaossilator.com/kaoss/2010/01/kaossilator-pro/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:30:17 +0000 Kaptain Kaossilator http://www.korg-kaossilator.com/kaoss/?p=44 Korg’s latest must have gadget is the Kaossilator Pro launched at NAMM earlier this month. Taking the form factor of its cousin the Kaoss Pad, the Korg Kaossilator Pro is like the classic Kaossilator on steroids. With 200 sound banks, audio input for sampling and vocorder functionality, four loop banks for unlimited recording and layering, a souped-up gate arpeggiator with modulation control, the good old X-Y pad interface and the ability to save to SD card this really is a gadget to die for. The Kaossilator Pro even comes with a USB port so you can hook it up to your Mac or PC. The addition of MIDI in and out means you can sync it up to other MIDI compatible devices, one of the most requested features in the classic Kaossilator.

When is the Korg Kaossilator Pro shipping? Well you can pre-order the Kaossilator Pro now and it will be available in March.

Kaptain Kaoss wants one.

So let’s break it down. Three words – dynamic, phrase and synthesizer. We all know what a synthesizer is. According to Wikipedia a synthesizer is “an electronic instrument capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies” so no surprises there. As for the words dynamic phrase my guess is as follows.

The Korg Kaossilator doesn’t generate just single notes or even chords. No, the range of sounds which can be achieved from the Kaossilator’s bank of presets also includes rhythm patterns, drum loops and complex, layered voices. The sounds available represent not just electronic and acoustic instruments, but a number of bizarre and expressive special effects too.

These voices can be shaped and twisted by dragging the finger across the Kaossilator touch pad or control surface, extending the sounds into phrases. And there is the clue to the word dynamic – the tonal and timbral character of the sound is shifted in real time by the actions of the musician playing the touchpad. Each phrase is controlled dynamically, with the pitch and amount of effect applied being adjusted by the x and y postion of the finger on the Kaossilator touch pad.

That’s my theory anyway! Got a better one?

The Kaossilator touchpad provides the player with a monophonic touch sensitive input method, that is to say that touching the pad will only trigger a single sound. However the touch pad is actually an extremely expressive way of playing due to the range of control it offers.

On most of the 100 presets, movement along the x-axis of the pad (i.e. left to right) controls the pitch of the note. But the real magic is the pad’s second dimension – along the y-axis. The up and down movement on the Kaossilator touch pad changes different parameters on different presets, ranging from volume, tremolo or tonal quality, through to more esoteric parameters such as high pass or low pass filters, delay, distortion or complementary frequency.

The result is a wonderfully expressive way of playing using a very intuitive interface. Some of the effects that can be achieved would take hours to program on a conventional synthesizer. If you get the chance to try out the Korg Kaossilator you’ll get it straight away, but be warned – if you do you’ll want one, that’s for sure!

A great shot from Flickr of the Korg Kaossilator with the Roland SH-101, a classic synth from the eighties. These are two totally different beasts with 25 years between them, but the SH-101 is still popular today.

A very nice Korg Kaossilator photographic study found on Flickr.

It’s what we’ve been waiting for – the Korg Kaossilator with optional YOWL module. It will add unparalleled warmth and fuzziness to your Kaossilator, apparently. Purrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I want one.